Craft Gin Club Subscription Box Review | September 2020

The arrival of my September Craft Gin Club box was a welcome addition to the booze cupboard in my new house, especially given that I’d essentially rinsed my current supply as a result of the house move. September’s offering is inspired by enchanted forests, mythical legends and magical creatures, with a spiced, citrus flavoured gin distilled in India.

Disclaimer: I am not an affiliate for Craft Gin Club, and have not been compensated in any way for this post. My gin subscription is ordered and paid for out of my own money and all opinions are my own.

What’s in the Box?

Stranger & Sons Gin

The London Essence Co. Blood Orange and Elderflower Tonic

Howdah Snacks – Onion Bahji

Campari

Mr Singh’s Tandori Chicken Crisps

Martin Frobisher’s Pineapple Juice

Tony’s Chocolonely Milk Caramel Sea Salt

Taylors of Harrogate Coffee Bags

Gin-a-colada Cocktail Syrup

Lemon and green peppercorn garnish

Stranger & Sons Gin

Stranger & Sons Gin is an award winning spirit which won the Outstanding Gold Award at the International Wine & Spirits Awards 2020, with a rather impressive 98 out of 100. Distilled in Goa, India, it’s a refreshing citrus flavoured gin with plenty of spice. Combining juniper, Indian citrus peel mix, coriander, nutmeg, black pepper, liquorice root and citrus root, it has a wonderfully refreshing scent with a bit of a kick. I was really impressed with the Stranger & Sons Gin, as you’ll know from earlier reviews that citrus flavoured gins are my favourite, but the additional spices really gave it a warm, autumnal feel. 

The London Essence Co. Blood Orange and Elderflower Tonic

I’ve tried the London Essence Co. tonics before and they’ve been really nice, but I’ve never tried the blood orange and elderflower one. I really liked the zesty blood orange notes of this, but the elderflower flavour was a really nice, subtle addition too. I’ve never actually thought of blood orange pairing with elderflower, but it really worked. The soft floral notes paired really well with the Stranger & Sons Gin, and it really brought the citrus flavours of the gin to life. 

Campari

Unfortunately, Campari is not a drink for me, so this currently resides in my booze cupboard, hoping for the day it’ll eventually get consumed. 

Snacks

So this month’s snacks offering was a little hit and miss – on one hand I bloody love any form of chocolate with caramel and sea salt, but on the other, spicy snacks are not my thing. We had some friends over one evening and one tried the coffee bag, and from what he said they were pretty good. They smelt amazing but I’m currently at a stage where I prefer the smell of coffee to the taste of it – I may give the other one a go in the future perhaps. The chocolate still resides in my cupboard, mainly because I’m a bit weird with chocolate and go through phases where I can’t stand the stuff one minute, and the next I would happily eat a whole sharing-sized bar. I’m currently in that first stage, but when things change, I will be all over it. Unfortunately, the tandori chicken crisps have gone into our collection of “snacks for our housewarming whenever the hell we get to have it.”

The Cocktail: Gin-a-Colada

I love the smell of a pina colada, but the creamy-coconut side of things puts me off actually drinking one. So, with that in mind, the thought of the gin-a-colada was much more appealing as it was just essentially gin and pineapple juice. Unfortunately, I was not a fan. The pineapple juice was incredibly bitter and it almost felt like it needed something to sweeten it up (probably what the coconut was for I’m assuming). As most of my readers know, I hate to waste booze, but this sadly went straight down the sink as it was too much. Such a shame as the gin and tonic recipe was so nice!

Final Thoughts

It’s a difficult one this month, as I really liked the gin and the tonic that went with it, but I felt as though the snacks offering let September’s box down a little. I’m aware that a lot of the stuff this month I didn’t really try properly, so I don’t feel I can review the snacks as honestly as I have done in previous reviews. In all honesty, I feel that perhaps if my anxiety wasn’t quite as bad this month, I may have given them a go. That may sound like such a piss poor excuse, but regular readers will know that when I’m feeling anxious, the first physical thing I suffer with is my stomach – there’s no way I was feeding it rich chocolate and spicy crisps. If I was rating the gin alone my score for this month would be higher, but as I usually rate the boxes as a whole, it’s a 6/10 for September.

Overall Rating for September’s Box: 6/10

Catch Up on Previous Reviews

May 2020 – La Distillerie De Monaco Gin Aux Agrumes
June 2020 – Dartmouth English Gin
July 2020 – Amázzoni Gin
August 2020 – Rock Rose Citrus Coastal Gin
October 2020 – Whitby Gin The Demeter Edition
November 2020 – Pienaar & Son Orient Gin
December 2020 – Cotswolds Dry Gin: Cloudy Christmas Edition
January 2021 – Pennington’s Lakeland Moon Snowfell Gin
February 2021 – Seppeltsfield Rd Distillers House Gin
March 2021 – The River Test Distillery Chalkstream Gold Gin
April 2021 – QVT Gin Dry Edition CGC